SHEEPSHEAD BAY'S ONLY INDEPENDENT NEWS BLOG

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Eleven people have been arrested in an alleged fraud ring in which 38 day care centers collected $18 million in public funds since 2007, with several of the day cares located in Sheepshead Bay.

In all, four day care operators and seven city workers were charged with conspiring to pay or receive bribes; all but one were charged with conspiracy to commit fraud. Each of the defendants faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison on the mail fraud conspiracy charge, and a maximum sentence of 5 years in prison on the bribery conspiracy charge, as well as fines of up to $250,000 or twice the gross gain or loss from the offense.

The complaint charges that a ring of 38 day care operators known as “The Congregation” paid bribes to city workers from three city agencies: the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, the Human Resources Administration and the Administration for Children’s Services.

The Congregation, allegedly controlled by Sheepshead Bay resident Liudmila Umarov, was exploiting the city’s Day Care Subsidy Program, which covers the costs of care for children from low-income families so that parents can obtain jobs. Umarov and her associates – Lyudmila Grushko, Yana Krugly and Rimma Volovnick – paid city workers for names and social security numbers of children who qualified for the program, and began billing the city for care they were not providing. Bribes were also paid to inspectors to overlook infractions, which included unqualified staff, lack of background checks, and not enough space per child. In at least one instance, hard alcohol was found in the refrigerator next to student lunches.

Among the Sheepshead Bay area day cares named in the complaint are: Paragon II Day Care, Inc., Learning Center Paragon, Amazing World Day Care Center, Banner Learning Center, Inc., and Sesame Street LMN Day Care. All of these centers are on Banner Avenue, just off Coney Island Avenue, though the full reach of the ring went as far as Staten Island.

Investigators hinted that more day care centers may be involved, and that the investigation will burrow further into this “massive fraud and bribery scheme.”

“We were concerned about the potential safety risk associated with letting this type of fraud go on,” Preet Bharara, the United States attorney in Manhattan, said in a statement yesterday. “It is fair to say that today’s events mark the end of just the first chapter in a very active and ongoing investigation.”

View the Justice Department’s criminal complaint.
[via The New York Times]

NYPD photo of Snyder // Courtesy of SILive.com

A reader sent me the following message last week:

My sister, her friend my next door neighbor and me all had a strange thing happen.  Last Saturday (6/19) a man knocked on my apartment door, claimed to live down the hall and asked for money for a copayment of $36 to get medicine for his daughter…I told him no…he then knocked on the door of my neighbor claimed he was a cousin of a third neighbor and asked her for $100.  This passed Wed. the same guy knocked on my sister’s door (she lives 1/2 mile from me).  She told me that a guy with the same description knocked on the door of a friend on Friday (6/18) night.  Just thought  the word should go out.

That reader lives on East 28th Street and Voorhies Avenue, and her sister on Knapp Street and Avenue X – so it looks like he might be hitting up co-ops on the eastern side of Sheepshead Bay.

If the story wasn’t weird enough, the next day another reader sent me a link to a story from a Staten Island newspaper. She lives in the Kings Bay co-ops; the same area as the other incidents. She wrote that the co-op manager slipped photocopies under residents’ doors.

Well, I took the story and the photo (above) and ran it past our original reader, who confirmed it was the man that came to her door.

The guy, Ronald Snyder, is a scam artist awaiting sentencing for doing out in S.I. exactly what he’s now doing in BK. Here’s an excerpt from the Staten Island story:

Keep reading to see how weird this story gets.

Courtesy of wallyg via Flickr

Seventeen men were indicted and a dozen medical supply companies were raided last week for their alleged involvement in a health care scam that netted more than $3 million for the conspirators. Most of those involved hailed from the Sheepshead Bay, Gravesend and Midwood neighborhoods.

According to SILive.com, federal authorities say the defendants submitted false invoices to insurances companies for medical equipment with “payments that were well in excess of the price they initially paid through their individual retail medical supply companies.” Paybacks were given in checks issues to the wholesale companies, and the checks were cashed at check-cashing stores and delivered to the defendants.

Each of the 17 defendants could face up to 20 years in prison.

“The type of health care fraud and money laundering scheme these individuals allegedly constructed and engaged in affects all Americans and directly impacts America’s health care system,” said James T. Hayes Jr., special agent in charge of Immigration and Customs Enforcement Homeland Security Investigations, which conducted the investigation with the United States Attorney’s Office Eastern District of New York, the FBI and the Internal Revenue Service.

Keep reading for a list of those involved.

A Sheepshead Bay resident is getting some relief, as a Fox 5 news report spurs on the process to clear his name.

Flatbush-based Police Officer Igor Groysman never rented a storefront in Nassau County. He never stocked that store with wireless products. But Groysman still faces losing everything as lawyers and bill collectors hound him for another Igor Groysman’s debts.

Fox 5 News reported on Tuesday that Groysman was the victim of erroneous court decisions against another man, which ultimately led to his bank accounts being seized and a lien put on his house.

“It’s destroying my life and my family life,” Groysman told Fox 5 News.

The trouble began in 2005, when Groysman received his first summons for another Groysman, who also lives in Sheepshead Bay, for failure to pay rent on the Nassau storefront. The man also owed money to the supplier of wireless devices for the store. [UPDATED]

Continue reading about how Groysman was steamrolled, and how the real Groysman is finally turning up

New York Post is reporting that Michail Sorodsky, a “doctor” with an office on Ocean Avenue and a residence on Emmons Avenue, has been hit with the highest bail in recent memory.

Sorodsky stands accused of sexually abusing at least eight female patients and has also been operating an unlicensed practice since 1995. The bail – $11 million cash/$33 million bond – set on the 65-year-old doctor is so high that it’s stirring up a debate: is Sorodsky being made an example with abusive bails? Or is he a potential scumbag getting what he deserves?

Here’s an excerpt from the Post:

An allegedly phony Brooklyn doctor accused of sexually abusing patients while they were under anesthesia has the dubious distinction of having the highest bail in the land: either $11 million cash or a virtually impossible $33 million bail bond.

No exact records exist, but several experts say Michail Sorodsky’s bond is the highest they have ever heard of.

“You know what they’re basically telling him?” said one. “Screw you. You’re not getting out.”

…

His astronomical bail tops even that of such high-flying fraudsters as Tyco CEO Dennis Kozlowski, who was tried in state court, and Ponzi king Bernard Madoff, who was charged federally. Each put up $10 million of his own cash.

Sorodsky was first charged back in late-2007, when one patient said he told her to drink a liquid that caused her to lose consciousness. When she awoke, she found Sorodsky naked and lying on top of her, according to the Brooklyn Eagle. The patient later discovered evidence that caused her to believe that she had been raped.

Attorney General Andew Cuomo’s office said Sorodsky owned and operated the Holistic Skin and Spa Clinic, located at 2701 Ocean Avenue. He was arrested and charged with numerous felonies and misdemeanors, including rape in the first degree, unlicensed practice of medicine, scheme to defraud, and numerous counts of aggravated sexual abuse, sexual abuse and forcible touching. Before additional victims came forward, Sorodsky was arraigned in Kings County Criminal Court on Nov. 30, 2007, and his bond was originally set at $3 million.

More from the Brooklyn Eagle:

Sorodsky, of 1625 Emmons Ave., preyed on Russian-speaking residents of New York City for several years, according to the Attorney General’s Office. He advertised in Russian-language newspapers to solicit patients and portrayed himself as a medical doctor who administered special medications.

Sorodsky claimed that he guaranteed the effectiveness of his treatments and that he could completely cure many ailments, including cancer. The Attorney General’s investigation found that some of Sorodsky’s cancer patients died prematurely, since they believed in Sorodsky’s ability to cure them. According to his Web site, “Sorodsky, an outstanding scientists [sic], received his education, professional and academic experience primarily in the former Soviet Union … and graduated with a Ph.D. degree in medical science.” He then studied Eastern medicine in Tibet before emigrating to the United States in 1993, settling in Brooklyn and opening up his holistic health center, where the crimes are alleged to have occurred.

“You will experience a treatment that is quick, painless and one that goes directly to your cells,” he claims on his Web site.

Sorodsky also operated another Holistic Skin & Spa in Upstate New York. The Bed & Breakfast Sanatorium in Walton is “smack in the middle of Mother Nature’s playground,” and has an Olympic-sized swimming pool, golf course, tennis courts and football fields for patients to use, according to the Web site. “Where Mother Nature Cures,” is its motto.

According to the Attorney General’s investigation, since at least 2005, Sorodsky performed physical examinations, took patients’ blood, administered what he claimed were medications and committed acts of sexual abuse on his female patients. In addition, Sorodsky allegedly bilked patients out of thousands of dollars for these ineffective and possibly harmful “treatments.”